Bullet



July 13, 1954 W. L. KELLER E! AL BULLET Filed June 2, 1949 FIG. '2.

. INVENTORS. ll-TE L. KELLER.

A. IILLER, JR.

Patented July 13, 1954 BULLET Walter L. Keller, Philadelphia, Pa., and George A. Miller, Jr., Weirsdale, Fla.

Application June 2, 1949, Serial No. 96,804

(Granted under Title 35, U. S. Code (1952),

sec. 266) 1 Claim.

The invention described in the specification and claim may be manufactured and used by or for the Government for governmental purposes without the payment to us of any royalty thereon.

This invention relates to small arms bullets in general, and, in particular, to bullets which include a hard core, a jacket and a sabot-like cup as integral components thereof.

Broadly stated, the object of this invention is to provide a bullet comprising the abovementioned components, among other things, which components will not become clisassociated upon being fired from a rifled firearm.

A more specific object is to provide such a bullet whose jacket will not become stripped therefrom upon being fired from a rifled firearm.

Another specific object is to provide such a bullet whose sabot-like cup will not become stripped therefrom upon firearm.

A further object is to provide such a bullet whose jacket and sabot-like cup will tend to tighten to each other and to the bullets core, rather than loosen, when the bullet is fired.

A still further object is to provide such a bullet which can be adapted for armor piercing, armor piercing-incendiary, or armor piercing-incendiary-tracer usage.

One embodiment of the present invention is illustrated in the accompanying drawings, wherein:

Fig. 1 is a side elevation view of an ammunition round incorporating our novel bullet, portions of the cartridge case having been show conventional case components with which our bullet may be combined; and

Fig. 2 is a similar View of the bullet shown in Fig. 1, portions of the bullet having been broken away to show beneath the outer jacket: the core, the sabot-like base cup, and the manner of at tachment of these three components to each other.

Referring to the drawings it will be seen from Fig. 1 that our inventive bullet It may conventionally be assembled in a cartridge case ii and secured thereto by crimping the case, as at E2, into the bullet jackets cannelure Hi. The cartridge case may be filled behind the bullet with a propellant powder charge ii that is ignitable by i a primer I5.

From Fig. 2 it will be seen that our illustrative fnovel bullet is formed from a jacket 20, a core 2 I, 'base cup 22 and incendiary powder 23. The base cup 22 is first assembled onto the reduced diambeing fired from a rified broken away to etered shank 25 of core 2! and secured thereto by applying a cannelure 25 which crimps the cup wall into the circumferential groove 26 provided therefor in the exterior of the core shank 2G.

The core and base cup sub-assembly is then forced into jacket 28, as shown, until a rim 2? on the closed or base end of cup 22 is in flush contact with the mouth end 23 of the jacket. In order to make the thus assembled components a tight-fitting unit, the internal diameter of the month end of jacket 20 is selectively dimensioned to be slightly smaller than the external diameter of base cup 22. As a result, insertion of the corecup sub-assembly in the jacket causes the jackets mouth end to swell along the depth that the cup penetrated thereinto. After such insertion, cannelure i3 is applied to secure the jacket to the base cup, preferably in the same region as the cups cannelure 25 (as shown).

The thus assembled bullet is a unit of desired components which are inseparable throughout the bullets flight notwithstanding the severe forces exerted thereon. Instead of the components tending to disassociate themselves, the tendency is for them to tighten their grips on each other. The normal predisposition towards stripping which the jacket possesses is overcome by virtue of its being crimped (cannelure i3) to base cup 22. Similarly, the base cup cannot be pulled out of the jackets mouth end because the same crimp or cannelure it acts to lock the jacket and base cup, and thus overcome this type of stripping tendency. In like fashion, the core 2! is secured to the base cup 22 and in turn to jacket 20. When the bullet is fired, the rifiings oi the gun (not shown) cause counterpart riflings (not shown) to be engraved on the exterior base wall of the jacket in the region which has been swollen by insertion of the base cup. The grooves of these rifiings serve further to crimp the jacket 2t and base cup 22 together. These crimps, to gether with the initial canneluring crimps, aid in preventing disassoci-ation of the bullet parts during the bullets entire propulsion in the direction of the target.

By our present design, as will be obvious to those skilled in the art, the gas-tight seal and the provision of a suitable surface for taking the guns rifling are both accomplished without the danger of either the jacket or the sabot stripping from the bullet. The rim 2! of the sabotlike base cup 22 completely covers the mouth end 28 of jacket 26 and thus effects a gas-tight seal so that no gas seeps in between the base cup and the jacket, the gas which propels the bullet merely striking the closed end of the base cup. Air cannot get in between the cup rim 2! and the jacket 20 as the two are in flush-tight fitting relationship. Because air cannot get therebetween, and further because the cup and jacket are held together by the cannelure crimp 13 the two are inseparable notwithstanding the severe centrifugal force exerted thereon. Furthermore and most important, since the base cup is made to swell the rear end of the jacket to a size large enough to receive the riflings of the gun (not shown) through which it may be fired, the full benefit which the art knows to be derived from the use of rotating bands or sabots can now be attained without the danger of the sabot stripping from the bullet and fouling the gun.

As will be obvious, our inventive improvements are usable in bullets of various calibers and types such as armor piercing, armor piercing-incendiary, and armor piercing-incendiary-tracer.

From the foregoing it will be seen that we have provided a bullet comprising a jacket and sabot-like cup as integral components thereof, which component swill not become disassociated upon being fired from a rifled firearm; that we have provided a bullet whose jacket will not become stripped therefrom upon being fired from a rifled firearm, that we have provided a bullet whose sabot-like cup will not become stripped therefrom upon being fired from a rifled firearm; that we have provided such a bullet whose jacket and sabot-like cup will tend to tighten to each other and to the bullets core, rather than loosen, when the bullet is fired; and that we have provided such a bullet which can be adapted for armor piercing, armor piercing-incendiary, or armor piercing-incendiary-tracer usage.

Accordingly, our invention is broad in its adaption and is not to be restricted to the specific form here shown and described by way of illustration.

We claim:

In a bullet of the type described, a metallic generally cylindrical core having an ogival nose, square-cut rearward end and a rearward portion of reduced diameter forming a rearwardly-facing annular shoulder approximately midway between the ends of said core, there being a cannelure in said reduced portion, a base cup having an external diameter slightly larger than the main forward portion of said core and a square-cut rearward end enlarged to form an external rim defining a forwardly-facing annular shoulder. said cup fitting snugly about the reduced rearward end of said core and having its forward edge abutting the annular shoulder thereof and a cannelure overlying the cannelure in said core, and a thin-walled metallic jacket fitting snugly about said cup and core, said jacket having an ogival nose and a square-cut rear end abutting the forwardly-facing shoulder on said cup, said jacket and cup being crimped into the cannelures in said cup and core, respectively, that portion of said jacket overlying said cup being expanded thereby to form a driving band section, there being a space defined between the ogival noses of said core and jacket.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 270,101 Nordenfelt Jan. 2, 1883 338,849 Lorenz Mar. 80, 1886 759,516 Guye May 10, 1904 1,299,013 North Apr. 1, 1919 2,322,751 Studler June 29, 1943 2,532,323 Miller Dec. 5, 1950 FOREIGN PATENTS Number Country Date 417,314 Great Britain Oct. 2, 1934 584,187 Great Britain Jan. 9, 1947 

